


Leaves, Flowers, and Stars

by After_the_Lights



Series: An Unbreakable Connection - Terraqua Week [3]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: F/M, Gardens & Gardening, Huddling For Warmth, Kissing, People Watching, Post-Canon, Romantic Fluff, Skinny Dipping, Terraqua Week (Kingdom Hearts), Underwater Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 19:16:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20680550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/After_the_Lights/pseuds/After_the_Lights
Summary: They kiss to keep warm in autumn, huddling close and admiring the leaves, so gloriously ablaze with colour they nearly put Twilight Town’s sunset to shame.The air is fresh in spring, full with the promise of growth, and they kiss because they can, even if they do have an audience.And in summer they kiss with nothing but the stars for company.





	Leaves, Flowers, and Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Terraqua Week 2019 - Day Three - Prompt: Seasons
> 
> I'm challenging myself to write and publish each piece for Terraqua Week on the same day, so apologies for any typos I may have missed.

秋

Twilight Town is golden and bright at the best of time but its colours shine brightest in autumn.

They’ve managed to arrive horribly early and Tram Common is empty and silent, the first tram of the morning yet to begin rumbling along the tracks. All the shops are shuttered closed, including The Grand Bistro, so all they can do is sit and wait and admire the changing colours of the leaves.

Aqua stands under the tree at the centre of the plaza, swishing her feet through a pile of red and gold and brown with the joyous smile of a child, and Terra looks on fondly as she lifts her face to the branches above so she can watch the leaves fall. The wind arrives to help them on their way, whispering winter, and he tugs his jacket collar upwards to stop the chill from reaching the back of his neck.

He knows he has a scarf somewhere, an orange, bobbly thing Aqua made him that one year she tried out knitting. She wasn’t very good and decided to stick with metal and glasswork soon after but the scarf, despite its poor appearance, had proved useful. It kept him warm during the cold mountain winters and right now, with his teeth chattering and his ears growing redder by the second, he’d give anything to have it wrapped around his neck again.

Aqua glances over and spots him quaking like he's one of the leaves that are still on the tree.

“I _did_ tell you to dress warmly,” she tells him, and there’s a laugh in her voice as she slowly and deliberately presses several leaves under her foot and listens to the crunch, crisp and satisfyingly loud.

“I know you did,” he sighs, stepping closer to her because she looks warm and he is most definitely not. “I guess I’ve got no-one to blame but myself. I didn’t listen to you and then I also messed up calculating our arrival time.”

“I don’t mind,” she says and he knows she is telling the truth. Her eyes are the brightest they’ve been all week and she slips her fingers through one of his belt loops to gently tug him even closer. “And think of it this way; now we’ll get to see them actually prepare the food and when we take it home, we’ll know its extra fresh.”

“Somehow, I don’t think Ven’s going to care all that much.”

“I’d be rather concerned if he did,” she says, edging closer to him as the wind picks up again. “It’s his birthday. He has far more exciting things to think about.”

He shudders despite himself and Aqua slips her hands from his belt to his waist, sliding up his chest and then around and across to his shoulders before edging downwards to the small of his back. Her palms are warm, deliciously so, almost like she’s casting a delicate fire spell. He’s not even sure such a spell exists, a flame that shines and warms but does not burn, but if anyone could pull such magic off, it is her.

“We are out in public,” he murmurs because even though the people of Twilight Town have seen many strange things over the past year, he’s not quite sure how its citizens will react if they learn that the magic from their storybooks is actually real. Or how they’ll respond to two young adults standing so terribly close together.

Aqua ignores him, her hands still roaming across his body. “There’s no-one else around. And even if there were, we’re not doing anything wrong. It’s early and cold and we’re protecting each other from the wind. Everyone knows that huddling together is one of the best ways to keep warm.”

A pair of gilded leaves tumble between them, landing on his jacket and the corners of his mouth kick upwards as she swiftly moves her hands around to brush them off. “Well, you can try telling other people that but I’m not quite sure they’d buy it. I think there might be slightly more conventional ways to stay warm.”

Aqua chuckles and returns her hands to his back, where the warmth spreads softly across his skin like wings. “I suppose so. I would buy you a cup of hot chocolate but since you flew us here so quickly, I don’t think anywhere is open.”

“This is true,” Terra says and decides to return her favour as best he can. He rests his hands upon her shoulders, mindful not to place them too close to her neck, drawing her closer to him and drawing himself closer to her.

Her coat is surprisingly thin considering the weather, but she has always coped with cooler temperatures better than he does. She tilts her head back and he does the same, watching through his lashes as more and more leaves flutter their way to the ground.

“I guess I could always kiss you,” he suggests.

“It would definitely keep us warm against the cold,” Aqua hums, her gaze rising to the dark and twisting branches above their heads and the slowly falling leaves, so gloriously ablaze with colour they nearly put the perpetual sunset to shame. Her eyes slowly return to his and, with a shadow of a smile on her lips, she says, “I told you before, Terra. You don’t need to ask.”

He shakes his head. He knows he doesn’t have to, she reminds him often enough, but he wants to. He has his reasons and he has to ask; to be sure, to be certain, to be gentle. A decade in the darkness didn’t break her but is hands nearly did.

That is why. 

He wants to be gentle. He just isn’t sure he knows how to be like that anymore, not after everything his heart and body were made to do. So when he does kiss her, it is with trembling lips and an equally shaky heart. Aqua sighs against his mouth, gliding her hands from his shoulders to his waist, and when she closes her eyes, smiling, and curls into him until even the most vicious of winds would struggle to bring the cold between them, he knows that will try.

For her, he always will.

春

Winter melts into spring, the cold dullness warming to a colourful brilliance which brings brighter skies, fresh blooms, and a pale sprite-like girl who carries spatters of paint on her skin like freckles.

Naminé does not understand Terra’s fascination with dirt but she is more than happy to keep him company in the garden, sitting on a bench with a sketchbook on her lap and pencil in hand while he potters around the vegetable patch.

The spring air is fresh, full with the promise of growth, and she watches him closely, eye-balling angles and measurements before finally starting to draw. Her pictures today are nothing special, just sketches of him digging holes for new plants and pulling weeds, messy little things that are rough around the edges. She’s trying to capture movement, something she knows her drawings tend to lack. She wants to make them truly feel alive.

She’s almost filled the first page and is about to flip over to another one when Aqua strides into the garden, wearing a navy sundress that ends just above her knees. She makes her way over to Terra and peers down at him, her shadow across his broad shoulders, asking him something in a voice too quiet for Naminé to hear. Terra turns his head, throwing a smile at her over his shoulder and it appears to be enough to answer Aqua’s question because her own face breaks into a grin that’s almost as wide as his.

She edges past him to sit down on one of the other benches, her voice still hushed and low and cants her head towards the one patch of weeds he has yet to deal with. Terra rolls his eyes and replies sharply but there’s a glint in his eyes, light and mischievous, and Naminé presses a hand to her mouth to stifle her laughter when he reaches over and begins tickling the back of Aqua’s bare legs.

Aqua edges backwards, kicking his hands away and her expression is most peculiar. Her eyes are hard and glaring but her lips are twisted upwards like she’s trying desperately hard to contain a laugh. Terra places a hand on the bench and pushes himself to his feet. He leans towards Aqua, his eyes still bright and hers narrowed in suspicion, and with a grin he takes her face in his large, soil-streaked hands, painting earth along her jaw and across her cheeks.

She gasps, wide and loud and immediately begins scrubbing at her face with one hand and pushes him away with the other. Naminé laughs again despite herself. It is so rare to see the senior Keyblade Master like this, sputtering and flustered, and before Aqua can rid herself of Terra’s teasing hands and the accompanying dirt, he lowers his mouth to meet her lips.

Naminé drops her pencil, her cheeks reddening, and turns to her sketchbook. She’s seen kissing before of course, watched couples wrap themselves around each other during Radiant Garden’s flower festival or say goodbye after a successful date at The Grand Bistro. But this feels different somehow, maybe because of how close she is, literally and figuratively, to the two of them.

She fumbles around for her pencil, finger stroking the grass, and when she finds it she looks up to see that Aqua is no longer sitting on the bench. She’s standing flush against him, Terra’s arms wrapped around her shoulders and her own hands are tracing circles over the vast expanse of his back.

They’re still kissing, Aqua’s protests all but forgotten, and they carry on doing so for some time, much longer than Naminé has ever seen people kiss for. When they finally break apart, there is contentment in the lines of Aqua’s body and joy lingering on both their faces, tucked into the corners of their upturned mouths. The sight of it is heart-warming and Naminé can’t stop a foolishly large grin from spreading across her face.

They’ve been struggling together, wrestling with the lingering effects of darkness for so long that it’s nice, almost ridiculously so, to see them so happy. Even if she knows she probably shouldn’t be watching them in the first place.

Terra lifts a hand to Aqua’s cheek, brushing off some of the dirt that’s still dotted across her cheeks like stars. He murmurs something, something that makes her laugh, and she wraps a hand around one of his soil-stained wrists before tugging him back towards the castle. Naminé watches them go fondly, raising a shy hand which Terra returns, and when they’re both out of sight, she focuses her gaze back to her sketchbook.

Despite the overall messiness, she finds that she likes the sketches. Her lines are improving and the proportions are some of the most accurate she’s ever done. She still has a long way to go until they’re perfect, just like Ventus has a ways to go until he can finally call himself a Master, and just like Terra and Aqua have until they’ll truly be comfortable sleeping alone in the dark again.

But, she thinks, picking up her pencil once more, it is a start. And on a day like today, with the sky bright and blue and empty and her friends joyful and open-hearted, she can hardly be happier.

夏

The quiet dusk of summer’s evening has finally darkened into night and Aqua follows the well-worn path leading from the Forecourt towards the small mountain lake, watching the stars appear.

The sun may have set beyond the horizon but the air is hot and heady. It’s the kind that likes to birth thunderstorms and makes sleep next to impossible but she and Terra learnt long ago that on nights like this, sometimes the best thing to do is go for a swim.

When she finally makes it to the lakeside, she is greeted by his clothes, piled atop a rock and folded neatly to perfection. Years ago he would have gladly left them crumpled on the ground but he likes to take his time now, to do it properly. He does it to remember Eraqus, who once spent an entire morning when they were younger teaching Terra how to correctly fold his trousers without ruining all the pleats, and while Aqua finds the thought touching, she never quite sure if it should make her smile or cry.

“Room for one more?” she calls to him and begins kicking off her shoes without even waiting for an answer.

“Always,” he replies, watching with a grin as she tugs off her socks. “Especially if it’s you.”

He turns around when she reaches for the front of her shirt, a gesture she finds both highly amusing and incredibly sweet. He’s seen her naked plenty of times before, has explored her body with his hands and his lips and his tongue, but he’s always mindful to give her the option of privacy. If she asks him to watch, however, she knows he’ll do so happily.

Free of all her clothing, she approaches the water’s edge with small, careful steps.

Aqua has no recollection of learning how to swim. It’s a skill that has always been with her, something that comes effortlessly to her body, almost as naturally as blinking and breathing.

Someone must have taught her and if it wasn’t Master Eraqus then maybe, just maybe, it was her birth parents. She doesn’t remember much about her home-world but sometimes at night when she’s trying to lull herself to sleep, the faintest of memories start flickering in her mind and she swears she can hear the ocean and smell the salt and feel the wind whipping her cheeks.

Terra doesn’t remember learning to swim either and the loss of this memory troubles him far more than it does her. He not sure if it’s something he’s never been able to recall or if it’s yet another thing that Xehanort has stolen from him.

She reaches the water and dips in her toes. The lake is calm and clear and dark, mirroring the night sky and while it may be beautiful, for a horrible second she can’t help but think of the waters at the Dark Margin.

She shakes her head. This is the mountain lake, their lake, the one they’ve been playing in ever since they were small and scrawny and desperate to summon keyblades for the first time. There is nothing to be afraid of here, nothing that will drag her down to the deepest depths and seep into her heart, staining it black. There is nothing here, nothing but the water and the stars and Terra’s warm smile.

She takes a breath, shoves down the anxiety, and dives in.

Terra is idly treading water in the centre of the lake and she heads towards him with long and slow strokes, her skin tingling as she tries to get used to the chill. He stands up and grins as she approaches, his broad shoulders rising out of the water, pushing sopping strands of hair off his face and out of his eyes.

“I was beginning to think you weren’t coming,” he says softly.

“I’m sorry. Ven just really wanted to talk.” She keeps her voice low too, not wanting to disturb the stillness of the evening or the singing of the crickets off in the distance.

“I take it he’s having a lot of fun then?”

“From the sounds of it, yes. They spent the day at the beach and he and Xion managed to beat Roxas and Axel in an ice-cream eating contest.”

Terra grimaces. “Sounds pretty awful to me. The eating-contest, I mean. Not the beach.”

Aqua snorts. “Of course you’d think that. You want to know what else is awful? People telling you the water’s going to be warm when it really isn’t.”

“I didn’t say it _would_ be warm. I said it would _probably_ be warm.”

“Right,” she says with a forgiving smirk, and when Terra leans backwards to float on his back she drifts alongside him in quiet contentment.

His hair always appears longer when wet and it spreads out behind him like a rich and dark fan. Aqua runs her fingers through it, brushing out tangles and coiling the ends around her finger to make a ring. The stars are out in full now, bright and plentiful, and their reflections dot both the water’s surface and his hair, giving the impression that he’s decorated it with pins.

Terra sighs, a gentle and rumbling thing, and then turns his head so he can look at her. “Ven’s missing out. You don’t get views like this is Twilight Town.”

“No, you don’t,” she agrees, counting the freckles on his bare shoulders. There are thirteen, two more than the last time she checked. 

For a long moment, they are silent, their only company the stars and a freshly arrived breeze. But then Terra smiles, a grin broad enough for the moonlight to catch on his teeth and one that she recognises as a prelude to a challenge. He catches her eye and with a quickly exhaled breath, disappears below the surface. 

Aqua shakes her head, watching as the ripples spread over the spot he vanished and the stars dance across the surface. When they begin to settle and the lake once again looks like mirrored glass, she lets out her own breath and heads below.

It is dim below the water’s surface. There are no stars to guide her to Terra here but she has no need for them, as lovely as they are. She flexes her hand and creates a small ball of flickering light, sea-fire, in the palm of her hand. It is faint and trembling but still bright enough to transform the shadow in front of her into the familiar features of Terra’s face. His eyes grow wide, not expecting to be caught so soon, but then he smiles and draws closer to her in a single, impressively smooth motion, the fire-light dancing across his cheeks.

Aqua reaches for him with her unlit palm. His lips rise and his eyes crinkle and he starts laughing, silently, releasing a storm of tiny bubbles that shimmer like stars as they make their way to the surface. His fingers twine around hers and their legs are tangling together and even in the relative darkness of the lake, his lips manage to find their way home to press against hers.

Her eyes flutter shut as she curls into him, tasting his lips and the water and the reflections of stars. It is more difficult than she expects to push him away and open them again but when she does he is still there, like he always is, holding her in his arms with a bright smile and warm eyes.

Aqua does not remember how to swim. But as they slowly rise towards the surface to greet the stars again, she knows there are some things she will never, ever forget.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm challenging myself to write and publish each piece for Terraqua Week on the appropriate day, so apologies for any typos and the messiness in general. Today's was the most difficult day so far but it was also strangely liberating, having to write so quickly and not have the time to analyse everything and edit it over and over again. 
> 
> I did try to write a section for winter but I didn't have enough time. It's my least favourite season anyway, so I'm not too fussed about leaving it out.
> 
> Title is inspired by the setsu-getsu-ka art movement that was popular in Edo Japan. It literally translates as Snow, Moon, Flowers. The page breaks are the names of the corresponding season in Kanji.
> 
> Most of the KH horoscope edits I've seen place Ven as a Sagittarius, so that's why he has an autumn birthday here.
> 
> And I know lots of people head-canon Aqua as having issues with the dark of night and sometimes mirrors as well Post KH3 but I also like to think, given the way in which she was corrupted at the Dark Margin, that she might also have some anxiety around larger bodies of water.


End file.
